1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique extracting a particular image from among a plurality of images.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the popularization of digital appliances such as a digital camera, etc, data that represents an image has been frequently handled in recent years. Accompanying this phenomenon, the capacity of a small-sized recording medium such as a smart medium, a compact flash, etc., which are loaded into a digital camera, etc. has been increased to enable more images to be recorded. Furthermore, large-capacity recording media such as a CD-RW (CD-ReWritable), a DVD-RAM (Digital Versatile Disk-RAM), etc. have been frequently used as recording media for storing images. As a result, many images can be recorded on one recording medium, whereby it becomes easier to manage a recording medium than ever before.
However, since many images are recorded on a recording medium, it becomes difficult to extract a particular target image from among the images in a short time.
By way of example, for a digital camera, a user sometimes displays his or her desired image on an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) of the back of the main body of the camera from among images which are shot and recorded on a loaded recording medium so as to confirm the shot image. In this case, the image is displayed on the LCD in a single frame format or an index format depending on a way of using a display format by the user. An image display in the single frame format (hereinafter referred to simply as a single frame display) is a display format in which only one image is displayed on an LCD. In the meantime, an image display in the index format (hereinafter referred to simply as an index display) is a display format in which a plurality of images such as 2×2, 3×3, 4×4, etc. are simultaneously displayed on an LCD.
In the index display, frame advance is made for each index image composed of a plurality of images. Therefore, this is a display format more suitable for searching for a desired image than the single frame display in which frame advance is made for each image.
However, unlike the single frame display, image processes for creating an index image, such as a resize process for simultaneously displaying a plurality of images, and the like are performed in the index display. Therefore, if frame advance (index image advance) is made by many times in the index display, the image processes for creating an index image are performed by many times. As a result, it takes a lot of time to search for a desired image, leading to a difficulty in searching for the desired image in a short time.
Additionally, the single frame display is sometimes configured to enable a uniform frame advance made every plural images (by way of example, frame advance made every 10 frames). However, if a desired image is searched in such a single frame display, the image can possibly be skipped. It is difficult to search for the desired image in a short time also in this case.
Furthermore, as another method selecting a particular target image from among a plurality of images, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 2001-229176 proposes an image displaying apparatus that displays a search screen for narrowing down the number of images if the number of images to be displayed becomes equal to or larger than a predetermined number, displays a listing after the images to be displayed are narrowed down by specifying a shooting date and time, etc. on the search screen, and makes a user select a desired image from the displayed listing. With this proposal, however, a sufficient number of images cannot be listed and displayed if a display unit is small. Therefore, it cannot be said that this technique is an effective proposal for a configuration where a small display unit such as an LCD, etc. is comprised on the back of a digital camera, etc.
Furthermore, by way of example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 2001-54041 proposes a digital camera that automatically creates a new folder whose creation date is a shooting date and stores a shot image in the folder, if the shooting date is different from the creation date of a folder created on a recoding medium, or stores a shot image within a folder if a shooting date matches the creation date of the folder created on a recording medium, so as to ease a search at the time of replay. However, also with this proposal, it is difficult to search for a desired target image in a short time if the number of images recorded to a folder becomes large.
In the meantime, a large-capacity recording medium such as a CD-RW, etc. is generally managed by affixing a label on which contents of a recorded image, for example, contents of an event (such as an occasion, a trip, an athletic meeting, etc.) to be shot, an image file name, etc. are written to the recording medium. However, if the number of images becomes large, contents of a recorded image cannot be definitely determined in some cases only by confirming items written to a label.
Accordingly, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 2000-25296 proposes an image replaying apparatus that decides a print size of recording paper (label) according to a loaded recording medium, and prints a predetermined image selected by a user on the recording paper according to the print size. With this proposal, a user can determine the contents of a recorded image by confirming the image printed on recording paper affixed to a recording medium. However, the user must select an image to be printed on the recording paper, namely, an image whose recording contents can be determined later from among images that are displayed in the index display on a monitor unit, and recorded on the recording medium. Therefore, if the number of recorded images is enormous, it is difficult to select a target image in a short time.